Marc Hogan

May 28, 2013 –
Charli XCX has been trying her hand at other artists' songs since packing last month's True Romance with her own potential hits. You know, covering a boy-band classic by the Backstreet Boys, reworking a 2012 space-disco nugget by Norwegian producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm — the usual. Now she has yielded True Romance's honeymooning "What I Like" over to the Grimes- and Das Racist-collaborating producer known as Blood Diamonds. Los Angeles-based Mike Tucker warps some vocals and soaks the original in candy-colored murk that's probably perfect for "sitting on your bedroom floor still smoking." He's fresh off a like-minded remix of Kendrick Lamar's "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe." Charli, when not letting Danny Brown add a verse to this song, has also been acting out rave-reviving "Take My Hand" in video form and collaborating with tourmates Marina & the Diamonds.

May 28, 2013 –
Damon Albarn keeps playing coy about the prospects of more Blur material, but the British band's frontman has let slip he's working on a new solo album.In an interview with Rolling Stone, Albarn said the album is "sort of folk soul" and features "rhythmic" work from XL Recordings chief Richard Russell, who teamed up with Albarn on Bobby Womack's 2012 The Bravest Man in the Universe. "Making a solo record can be such a disaster, so I thought if we're going to make a record with my name on it, I should get someone to really produce it," Albarn explained.He will also reportedly be mounting a solo tour in support of the LP, playing songs from a career that spans Blur; Gorillaz; the Good, the Bad, and the Queen; and a variety of other work (including two operas). The title and release date for the record are unclear, but it's being billed as his first solo album.

May 28, 2013 –
Daft Punk continue to put all other viral marketers to shame. It helps they have the album, Essential Random Access Memories, to back it up. The extensive buildup to the record is finally over, but the LP's release last week hasn't put an end to the group's unconventional promotional stunts.As Pitchfork notes, Columbia Records has teamed up with Lotus F1 Team, a Formula One racing team associated with the British sports car maker Lotus. Perhaps not coincidentally, Lotus F1 Team raced at Le Grand Prix de Monaco over the weekend with a Daft Punk logo emblazoned on one of their racecar's hoods.

May 24, 2013 –
Daft Punk's Essential new Random Access Memories keeps setting records, and one of them must be for the number of reworkings popping up out there. The French duo have said they're working on their own remixes, but they've also encouraged fans to reinvent the album's material. The latest remarkable instance is a five-minute medley by Australian keyboardist Joe Jeremiah, who plays bits of every song on the album, 8-bit style. We'd already heard an eight-bit version of lead single "Get Lucky," but this is the type of ambitious spectacle that would have to make Daft Punk's robot heads proud. Watch Jeremiah's "A-Bit of Daft Punk" above and make your Nintendo cry.

May 24, 2013 –
Kendrick Lamar has only the best reasons for wanting to kill so-called molly rap: because it's "corny" and its unthinking use "waters down" the language of hip-hop.At the end of Lamar's recent video for "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe," from the rapper's Essential good kid, m.A.A.d city (our favorite rap album of 2012), the screen flashes with the words, "Death to Molly." It was an apparent reference to the powdered form of ecstasy compound MDMA, whose prevalence in hip-hop lately inspired our piece Rolling in the Deep: Hip-Hop's Greatest Molly Moments. Danny Brown, who raps about ecstasy and virtually any other mind-altering substance, tweeted at the time, "I hope this new KDot video do make people stop fucking wit #Molly."Now, in a video interview with MTV's Sway Calloway, Lamar has confirmed he's hoping to end the molly-rap moment.

May 24, 2013 –
When Katy Perry tweeted on Tuesday, "Just heard a new song on the radio called 'I hate being sober' I now have serious doubt for the world,” she was more right than she knew.Ugh. Okay, so "I Hate Being Sober" is a track from Chief Keef's Essential major-label debut, Finally Rich.

May 24, 2013 –
If Daft Punk are doing it right, everybody will be streaming them and they'll be breaking records set by corny bands. Also, Mad Men's Ken Cosgrove will be dancing to Random Access Memories' Panda Bear collaboration "Doin' It Right." So we're partway there!Hypebot notes, Daft Punk's Essential new album is on pace for the most streams ever in its first week of release. That would put it ahead of Mumford & Sons' Babel, which holds the current record with more than eight million streams in its first seven days of U.S. release.Whether or not the French dance-pop duo can beat the British folk-rockers, Random Access Memories has already set a slew of social-media records. First single "Get Lucky" had the biggest opening day of streams worldwide since Spotify began, racking up more than 28 million streams globally to date.

May 24, 2013 –
American Idol fever — and the drinks — were so strong in one Pennsylvania home that a couple ended up stabbing each other during the recent season finale.According to the York Dispatch (via the Hollywood Reporter), 48-year-old Karen Elaine Harrelson and 57-year-old Gregory L. Stambaugh were watching the show and drunkenly arguing about which of the two finalists should win: Candice Glover or Kree Harrison. At some point, police told the Dispatch, one person grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the other. Then the stabbing victim stabbed the stabber.Luckily, neither sustained life-threatening injuries. Unluckily, both were hit with assault charges and at last check were in prison pending tens of thousands of dollars' bail.For those who'd like to play this particular Idol drinking game, the couple helpfully told police their beverages of choice.

May 24, 2013 –
"U always get the dream that U deserve from what U value the most," Prince (one of our Greatest Alternative Drummers of All Time) declares on "Fixurlifeup," the gnarled funk-rocker he performed with backing band 3rdEyeGirl the same night Miguel crotch-planted on an audience member's head. When the song first surfaced online, what stood out was the Purple One's grungy new sonic direction, but the newly posted video emphasizes the politically charged lyrical content. The clip circulated earlier this week but was taken down almost immediately, and now it's back online — for good, we hope.In it, we see the fancifully attired, ever-eyelinered pop legend in the midst of what looks to be a ferocious performance with 3rdEyeGirl, as lyrics and relevant images flash across the screen, including a few of Occupy-like mass protests — with shades of Thurston Moore's latest Chelsea Light Moving video.

May 23, 2013 –
Let's hope Marissa Mayer is reading this. While the Yahoo CEO is betting the company's hugely expensive purchase of Tumblr will somehow pay off better than Rupert Murdoch's hugely expensive purchase of MySpace, Twitter's new music-discovery app is showing the shortcomings of big companies buying online startups with uncertain revenue models.As Hypebot points out, Twitter #Music recently dropped out the top 100 free music apps for Apple mobile devices. As we type this, it stands at #117, between apps for Metallica's Orion Music + More Festival and upstate New York's Mountain Jam festival; it's also behind something called Cat Piano. But the month-old music recommendation service is already updating its features.